City Moves forward with Amazon Delivery Hub at McCarthy Ranch

The city’s Planning Zone Administration approved a tentative plan last week to bring a 24-hour Amazon delivery hub to a 44-acre site between 707 and 907 North McCarthy Boulevard.

According to a city memo, the hub will consist of three buildings, with at least one building dedicated to indoor parking to hold the company’s various delivery trucks. The proposal offers 340,000 square feet of warehouse space and 10,000 square feet of office space.

Parking and traffic — common concerns among residents when it comes to new developments — were also addressed in the project proposal. But the highest amount of delivery traffic, according to a letter from City Planning Director Ned Thomas, will take place at night, and will consist of delivery trucks containing Amazon orders. Those orders will be loaded onto smaller trucks and private vehicles participating in the Amazon Flex program, the company’s delivery gig service.

“Primary concerns were for traffic,” confirmed Milpitas Public Information Officer Jennifer Yamaguma. “But the proposed use for parking will generate far less traffic than the previously planned use of the building for manufacturing and traditional shipping.”

The project approved last Thursday was an amendment to an existing Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the subject site, which also required a public hearing due to changes in the project’s environmental impact, according to Yamaguma.

The site will be privately funded by Amazon, with no help from the city. Public funding through incentives has been a concern among local governments when letting tech companies build in cities. An agreement approved last month between neighboring City of San Jose and tech retailer eBay drew criticism for offering the company up to $150 million in development fees without any promise of new jobs or construction in return.

Amazon has already been knocking on Milpitas’s door. The company’s delivery service, which processes the company’s many orders, already has a building in North San Jose, just one intersection from Mabel Mattos Elementary School.

Amazon and the city have not agreed to a move-in date, which is pending on a revised project report.

Lloyd Alaban is a reporter who has lived in Milpitas his entire life. He has a BA in Sociology from UC Santa Cruz and a MS in Journalism & Mass Communications from San Jose State University. He has written for publications such as AsianWeek, realtor.com, Work+Money, SpareFoot, Uni Watch and San Jose Inside. He’s also worked at tech companies like Yahoo! and Google, and has subbed at every public school in Milpitas — except Pomeroy. In his spare time, he likes playing anything that has to do with trivia (especially watching Jeopardy!), running, drinking beer, reading, and playing with his Siberian Husky.